Merry Christmas, turtle style

Last year it was cake balls. This year, homemade turtles.

Here's how you do it.

You need some of these...

Some of these...
and some of these,
Word on the street was that ROLOs were like the cabbage patch dolls
of 20 years ago. Hard to find!
After checking 4 different places I got lucky and Hannah B.
brought me 4 bags all the way from Bloomington, IN
THANKS HANNAH!!!
they were going to be that much better cause the ROLOs came
from Tarjay!

Unwrap the candy (hardest part)

You could save the gold foil wrappers for your next decoupaging project,

I opted to throw them away.

Place pretzels on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and

set ROLO on top of each pretzel.

Put cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven.

Bake for 5 minutes.

Take out and immediately firmly apply a pecan (press it down a bit)

to each one.

Let cool completely. (the waiting is the hardest part)

ENJOY!!!

I got a little inventive and put another pretzel on top of some of mine

for a ROLO sandwich.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ME AND MINE

TO YOU AND YOURS!!!!!

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Fall 2010

We attempted outdoor Fall decor for the first time this year.

Thanks to Cliff's nephew we were able to obtain some bales of hay/straw. Cliff was totally offended that I did not know the difference between hay and straw. I still don't.

Our good friends Norman and Cinda once again brought us the "great pumpkin".

They sure can grow 'em big.

The non-rain kept us busy watering mums daily.

Jack and his very special horseshoe gourd.

It's the great pumpkin!

Concern?

Here we go again.....

Saturday the mail lady brought me a little something special.

Anonymous letter number 2!!

Remember the first one? You can read the post about it here.


This time I'm not going to share it all with you. The stuff about me, whatever. The stuff about my husband and kids, not so much.

Let me start by sharing (for all of you who have never had the joy of receiving an anonymous letter) the roller coaster of emotions one goes through when you pluck the letter from your pile of mail.
Interest, bewilderment, anger, sadness, hunger, shock, thirst, anger, humor, thirst, more shock, confusion and more hunger.

(I cannot guarantee you will feel this way when or if you are the recipient of an anonymous letter, perhaps you will be one of the lucky ones who loses your appetite and then not only have you gotten an anonymous letter but the scale shows you have lost a few lbs!)

I'm not sure where to begin or what to say about this letter. This one was pretty mean and I gotta give it to the writer, minus the improper zip code placement in the return address it was error free and pretty well written. Of course when one gets a letter such as this even though there is probably no chance of ever finding out who the author is your mind does immediately go to a suspect(s). I have my ideas of who wrote it. Those of you who know about the group of individuals who committed crimes against me and my family could be thinking along the same lines I am.

One of the best parts about being the recipient of an anonymous letter is telling people you got an anonymous letter and then getting the sincere response of "who was it from?". Laugh or cry, that's the choice you have to make. In the face of douchbaggers that write something so vile and riddled with lies I have to choose to laugh.

Here's the deal with me. I get that not everyone likes me. Since the writer of the anonymous letter told me that I consider myself a martyr I will invoke the name of a real martyr. Mother Theresa. Even in all her martyrdom glory she had some idiots that did not like her. Not that I am Mother Theresa like in anyway. I am not a nun. I do not live in poverty. I don't go around doing good works and I have never professed that I am in any way, shape or form martyr like. (although at my death I do expect a large statue to be erected in my honor. I also expect all of my friends to laugh now in Beevus and Butthead style because I just used the word erect) I am what I am and at the ripe old age of 37 years old I don't see myself doing to much changing, but that could change to. I don't want to purposely make anyone angry. I don't ever try to purposely hurt any ones feelings. I am not made of stone (until statue time at my death) and if you cut me I will bleed (orange and blue. GO EAGLES!).

The letter was signed "Concerned Citizen of Jasper County".

After thinking about it for a couple of days I suppose I should consider myself flattered. With all the problems Jasper County has to be concerned about I am what the anonymous douchebag chooses to focus on. WOW!! Who knew I was that important or powerful? A reality show has to be the next step for someone with my level of fame!!

The letter advised me to "step carefully" and last sentence of the letter told me to "Consider yourself warned". Noted. I'll make sure to write that one down and carry it with me. That way if you ever do get the balls to reveal yourself I'll have something on hand to shove up your ass.

I am also a concerned citizen of Jasper County but I'm not anonymous about my concerns. I care about my son's school so I joined the PTO. I support Newton Athletics, I want to see the athletic programs at NCHS continue their tradition of excellence so I am the Co-Chairwoman of the NCHS Athletic Boosters. I'm concerned about issues that face our county so I am active in the Jasper County Democrat Party and was recently appointed the Jasper County Democrat Precinct Committee Co-Chairwoman. I wish I could do more for Jasper County and someday if time permits I know that I will. I share these things not to toot my own horn but to say COME THE FREAK ON! Concerned Citizen my ass! Don't you have more important things to worry about than little ole me?

My God, Emily Allen is shopping for wigs. She's worried about finding hats to keep her head warm this winter because the chemo she is on to make sure her cancer goes away will also make her lose her hair. Be concerned about that. That's the kind of stuff that concerns me. That's the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. Seriously, think bigger. Think better.

I'll close with the wise words of one Cee Lo Green. His latest prose pretty much sums up my feelings about the most recent development in the freak show that is my life:

AIN'T THAT SOME SHIT

and on we go......

PEOPLE SUCK

In case you have not noticed, I'm blogging again. So far just some stuff about my kids. I have some other nuggets up my sleeve. Maybe some stuff about fried frito pie (can't you just hear Homer). I'm not sure I have it in me because it scares the hell out of me and makes my stomach and heart hurt, but I sure would love to write something poignant about the burning of books and the hatred that somehow has become commonplace in this country of ours. We'll see.

Anyhoo my sister Rebekah told me a story this weekend that I thought was just too good not to share. I could tell that what could have been an awful thing turned into a moment that restored her (what had been previously)very bruised faith in humanity.

I asked her if she would write a guest post on my blog (I do love a guest post) and she agreed. I am better for hearing this story and I hope you are as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Let’s be real. After two Divorces and enough runs through our small town rumor mill to qualify for at least some sort of really great athletic event, if not the Olympics, I pretty much chalked life up to……read the title of this post. (Don’t make me say it again).

Today my Sister asked me to tell you a story about someone that does not suck. This guy is probably the King of all NON SUCKDOM. And for awhile anyway, my faith in humanity has been restored.

The story is a simple one found throughout the ages and most of us have had the opportunity to hear it. The Bible, Fairy Tales, Sermons crafted from clever email forwards, various episodes of LHOTP (that’s little house on the prairie), etc. but sometimes people lose their faith and the Big J.C. knows when to step in and place you right in the middle of your very own life size email forward. It goes a little something like this…………

A shopping day had been planned for a couple of weeks, at least… D and I are on a mission to restock her wardrobe prior to her starting a new job. (which started today- congrats D!) We were having a lot of success when we finished up our second to last planned stop and came back out to the car and get the oh-so-fab tick tick tick noise when turning the key. NICE! At least with it being Labor Day weekend there were a lot of people around to help. Let’s get the hood open (our S.O.S. signal). Well, picture 2 damsels in distress trying to open the hood (and now however you are picturing us, humor us and make us just a bit hotter. And however you are picturing me please don’t put me in any form of pastel. Thanks) unsuccessfully. I immediately find a perfectly delicious man with both legs completely sleeved in ink from the knee down. Too bad he was as clueless as we were. We finally let him off the hook when Crazy Don and his Gal, Cindy ride into the story….on their Harley.

Crazy Don knows what’s up. He pops that hood right open and looks around and tells it just like it came from the Book of James (that is D’s dad and if you know him then you know what I mean). We were pretty much screwed. Acid Erosion. Cables eaten completely in half. I could tell it wasn’t going to be a “get some jumper cables and be on your way”sort of ordeal. While Crazy Don is checking things out under the hood D and I are getting to know his gal, Cindy. We find out that Don drives a truck all week long and has one MAYBE two days a week to be at home with her and his family. They were out on a ride that day spending time together. It just wasn’t in Crazy Don to drive on by and leave two ladies on the side of the road. She made it clear that they might look rough (believe me when I say Don looked JUST FINE and when I say fine that is spelled H-O-T-T) but they were good people and would do what they could for us. CD explains that parts are going to be needed. D and I immediately start counting our cash (who carries cash these days anyway?) and notice a bank with an ATM not far from us. He says we’ll settle up when they get back and off ride CD and Cindy to our rescue.

THEY RETURN! OUR RESCUERS RETURN!! CD and Cindy return with parts for the car (and drinks- they brought us drinks!) While CD is working on the car myself, D and our new gal-pal Cindy continue shopping. How cool is that? I determine that Cindy is nothing but Bad-Ass. I love her. We bonded over music and metal earrings and D loved that she could talk us out of a typical Tawny Kitaen-esque, rollin on the hood of a car in an 80’s music video, purchase that we probably would have regretted later anway (ok, im being real. I never would have regretted it. It would have went great with my blue eye-liner!). Like we had known each other all our lives!

We wrap things up and go back to check on Crazy Don and he is just finishing up as well. Our hero, in leather. What could be more perfect?! Maybe the fact that he would accept ABSOLUTELY Nothing for his time, the parts to fix the car, or fixing the car in general. Ahem…W.W.T.B.J.C.D? W.W.C.I.D? After thanking them OVER and OVER we knew we should let them get back to their day together. We had already blown a couple hours of their day.. but we just kept talking and CD finally decides we will head to Bdubs for drinks.

Crazy Don got a chance tell us about an amazing organization that he is a new member liaison for- check them out- http://www.guardiansofthechildren.com/. Their Motto says it all. “Don’t let your silence drown out their cries.” What an amazing way to help kids in the most desperate of need. Fixing a car for two stranded ladies pales in comparison to the work he does with this organization. We of course got to talk about SOA and the SOS and all thing motorcycle club related that we found very interesting and he probably was inwardly laughing but was very gracious about it all. Anway, im pretty sure we walked away from what could have been a pretty shit-tastic experience with two lifelong friends (oh, and did I mention they made us call them when we got home- yep, they were that good!)

So the moral of the story? Like I said we’ve all heard it before in one form or another. But, let me tell you. This was the best lesson I’ve learned in a long time and it couldn’t have come in a better package. It’s been a LONG time since I have blogged and those who know how I roll know I’m not wrapping this up without a GNR reference. So here goes.. in the words of the great, Axyl Rose “with your Bitch-Slap rapping and your cocaine tounge you get NOTHIN Done” so that’s it folks. If you don’t speak GNR here is the best translation I can give. When you are busy keeping the rumor mill spinning you don’t have a lot of time left to stop and help stranded chicks who love leather!!!!!

Flat Jack

At Jack's kindergarten Open House we were sent home with a couple of projects.

One was a page about Jack. A place to put a picture of him, a picture of his family, his birthday, his favorite foods and what he likes to do.

The second assignment was a paper doll that he was to decorate as he saw fit.

The Open House was August 12th. We had until September 3rd to turn in the assignments.

We turned in the info page on September third.

I asked Jack what he wanted to make his paper Jack look like. He was not sure. I gave him a couple of option's--Newton Eagle guy or business suit guy (cause in Jack's spare time he sells insurance). He wisely choose Newton Eagle guy.

Since I don't have a craft room, craft cabinet, craft drawer or craft anything (I DO own a glue gun) we asked my Mom (Jack's Mam who besides all her other craft supplies actually owns a huge plastic tub filled with felt. Just felt. All different colors of felt) if she could assist.

Jack and I went out to Mam's to give his blank paper doll an orange and blue makeover.

Here's the finished project........

Didn't Mom and I do a great job!! ;-)

The paper doll was also due on September 3rd.

He turned it in today. September 7th.

The Mother of the Year committee called this morning.

They said don't even think about it.

School picture day 2010

Remember school picture day back when we were in school? You get the picture taken and then they send home three proofs to choose from.

I'm new to all this. The first day of school Jack came home with his form from the school picture company. I was to choose and pay for the package we wanted, the pose of the pictures in the package and the background for said pictures.

Lots of choices to make and $$ to spend on pictures that you have not had a chance to see.

So after perusing Jack's wardrobe I choose the background that I hoped would go with the shirt that I hoped would show off his still Ken doll summer blond hair.

I thought I would take a few pictures that morning just in case the school pictures were not so desirable.

Harry had a polo that matched Jack's so I put him in it to take some pictures that I was pretty sure could up being contenders for this year's Holiday card.

Take one

Jack is thrilled.

(notice the half pressure washed sidewalk.

I got Cliff a pressure washer for his b-day.

Seriously the most satisfying cleaning experience EVAH. The cord would not

reach far enough so the sidewalk is only half done.

The next family that buys the house can finish it.)

TAKE TWO

TAKE THREE

TAKE FOUR

TAKE FIVE

little did I know this was a good as it was going to get

TAKE SIX

TAKE SEVEN

TAKE EIGHT

~~~~~~

That's a wrap.

I give up.

I'm hoping the photographer from LifeTouch had better luck than I did.

Jack goes to kindergarten

Make a photo slideshow

Make sure to turn on your speakers!

Walking for a cure

This weekend my "curly headed sister from another mister" Amber Lindemann, heads to Chicago with her actual sister Brianne. The two of them will be walking a total of 60 miles in 3 days participating in the Susan G. Komen 3 day walk for the cure. 20 miles a day. I asked Amber if she would write a guest post(s) on my blog when she got back. I knew she would have lots of stories and pictures to share. I was so excited that she accepted and will be sharing the story of her walk with us. She was nice enough to do a "pre-walk" trip report. I gotta admit when she first told me she was going to do this I thought she was a little crazy. I was proud of her, but still 20 miles a day for three days? That's nuts. Then I read this. Now I get it....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. 1 in 8.

I remember the day last fall....a close friend of mine, a fabulous woman sat in my living room and told me she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. I cried, and I felt helpless.....She is the strongest person I know, and is continuing her battle with a smile. She is so much stronger than me because I know I could never endure what she has and still laugh and smile. She is an amazing woman that I am lucky to call a friend.

In March, I signed up to walk in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for a Cure. If I could do nothing else to battle this disease, then at least I can help raise money for funding to search for a cure.

I took the fundraising challenge head on and within a month had raised the entire $2,300 fundraising minimum. My sister Brianne was inspired and signed up to walk with me. She had her $2,300 goal met a few weeks after me. Thank you to everyone who donated anything to us. Everyone was so generous. Our Bingo fundraiser was a HUGE hit and I hope to walk again next year and have another Bingo night!

The 3Day is a fundraising event held in 15 cities across the U.S.A. We chose Chicago on August 6, 7, and 8th.

We will gather together with 2,500 other walkers and walk 60 miles in 3 days. We'll camp along the way and shower in semi trucks. 3 days without indoor toilets..... We'll camp in hot pink tents and eat under the blue sky. It is going to be such an empowering 3 days, meeting survivors, and unfortunately walkers walking in memory of those who didn't survive. I'm sure I will cry more tears this weekend than I'll be able to count, but the Chicago walk alone will raise more than 5 million dollars for a cure.

I CAN walk 60 miles in 3 days. I'm sure I'll get plenty of blisters, but as much as blisters will suck, chemo is worse. I'd much rather walk any distance than fight Cancer.

I'd walk for anyone and am walking for everyone. I'm walking for Wanda. I'm walking for you, for your family, for your mothers, and aunts, sisters, and friends. I'm walking for your daughters. I'm walking for MY daughter, who I hope can grow up in a breast cancer free world.

I'll post updates for days 1, 2 and 3 when we return.

Thanks again for everyone's support!

Amber (walking in honor of Wanda Snyder)
Brianne (walking in memory of Lisa Massey-French)

Team "Saving Second Base....one step at a time"

Kaylie Sue got married....

My first cousin Kaylie has a special place in my heart.

Maybe it's because growing up I watched her struggle with that awkward Diel girl thing and I totally knew what she was going through.

More likely than not it's probably because of what anyone who is around Kaylie can see. She's a ray of sunshine. A smile always on her face. She's nice, but not TOO nice.

She's grown up now. No longer awkward. She grew into her height and the boobs.

and she fell in love....

Last month Kaylie got married.

Kaylie and Jake's wedding was pretty much perfect.

She was beautiful. Her dress was perfect A french horn played as a choir of their friends serenaded Kaylie and Jake.

I'm not sure if I have ever used this word to describe a person, but Kaylie was BEAMING!

The smile never left her face.

Jack and Harry sporting the matching outfits

that their Mother loves.

Mr. and Mrs.

(another great thing about this wedding, faux mustaches!)

Uncle Pat and Jack enjoyed toasting

(Jack's glass was filled with water--simmer down now!)
Check out Cliff's face!

Gus Bierman getting down with his bad self

pretty Hadley

Kaylie hearts N*SYNC (and really, who does not)

I wish I had captured the entire song because these girls had the choreography down.

It was a great day. My kids had SO much fun. As we were walking to the car that evening Jack said "why did we have to go, I was just getting ready to break a leg!"

Congrats Kaylie!!!

(and Jake)